Vladimir Alexandrovich Fock

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Vladimir Fock (also Fok , Russian Владимир Александрович Фок , scientific. Transliteration Vladimir Alexandrovič Fok ; * 10 . Jul / 22. December  1898 greg. In St. Petersburg ; † 27. December 1974 ) was a Soviet theoretical physicist , the basic Contributed to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory .

Life

Fock was born in Saint Petersburg in the family of the surveyor and forest scientist Alexander Alexandrowitsch Fock. After graduating from school in 1916, he began to study physics and mathematics at the University of Petrograd , but at the beginning of 1917 he volunteered at an artillery school. After a crash course, he was sent to the Romanian front and took part in the First World War, where he was wounded. After his demobilization in 1918, he returned to Petrograd and continued his studies. Fock counted among his teachers AA Friedmann .

Fock completed his studies in 1922 with a thesis on quantum theory and another thesis on integral equations and then worked at the University of Petrograd, where he became a professor in 1932, later head of the theoretical physics department. From 1924 to 1936 he was also at the Leningrad Physics-Technical Institute and from 1928 to 1941 at the State Institute for Optics as head of the theoretical department, from 1934 to 1941 and from 1944 to 1953 at the Physics Institute and from 1954 to 1964 at the Institute for Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR active.

During the Stalin Purge , Fock was arrested twice, in March 1935 and February 1937, but was released after Piotr Kapiza stood up for him with Stalin .

Fock died in 1974 and is buried in the cemetery in the Petersburg suburb of Komarowo. His grave is part of the cultural and historical heritage. The physics institute at Saint Petersburg State University was named after Fock.

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Fock dealt with quantum mechanics , quantum electrodynamics , quantum field theory , statistical physics , relativity , mathematical physics , applied physics and philosophical problems of physics. He introduced basic concepts of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, e.g. B. the Fock space and the associated Fock states and the Hartree-Fock method (following work by Douglas Hartree ). In 1926 he independently introduced the Klein-Gordon equation . During World War II , Fock developed a method for calculating the propagation of radio waves near the surface of the earth.

Fock developed a new interpretation of the general theory of relativity as the theory of gravitation, which is described in the monograph Raum, Zeit, Gravitation (1955). At that time he was one of the few proponents of Einstein's theory of relativity in the Soviet Union - while most Marxist philosophers rejected the theory of relativity, Fock emphasized that a materialistic understanding of the theory of relativity was compatible with Marxist philosophy.

Fock founded the scientific school of theoretical physics in Leningrad and made a decisive contribution to physics education in the USSR with his books. B. In 1931 he wrote the first Russian textbook on quantum mechanics.

Honors

Fock became a corresponding member in 1932 and in 1939 a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR . He received numerous prizes, such as the Order of Lenin in 1945, 1953 and 1958 and the Helmholtz Medal in 1971. The universities of Delhi , Michigan and Leipzig awarded him honorary doctorates in 1966, 1967 and 1972, respectively. In 1967 he became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR .

Since 1995, the Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded the Fock Prize for outstanding work in the field of theoretical and mathematical physics.

Fonts

  • Fock theory of space-time and gravitation , Akademie Verlag 1960
  • Ludwig Faddejew , L. Khalfin, IV Komarov (editors): Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock: Selected works. Quantum mechanics and quantum field theory , Chapman and Hall / CRC, Boca Raton, 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Graham, L. (1982). The reception of Einstein's ideas: Two examples from contrasting political cultures. In Holton, G. and Elkana, Y. (Eds.) Albert Einstein: Historical and cultural perspectives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, pp. 107-136
  2. ↑ W. A. ​​Fock Prize. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 7, 2018 ( Russian Премия имени В.А. Фока ).
personal data
SURNAME Fock, Vladimir Alexandrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Владимир Александрович Фок
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1974
Place of death Leningrad